How many playing years does Mwamba have left?

Just one. Appears he is a grad transfer.

At which point in the future do we slow down with the portal grad transfers? 1 of the 4 has only multiple years eligibility (Watson).

After the upcoming season, we graduate 6 guys once again. (Phil, Norris, Welch + 3 grad transfers).

Shouldn't we rather bring in guys for multiple years, win with them, develop them into the studs they are capable of being, and prioritize roster continuity? That's what made us wildly successful the prior 5-8 years. I'm just of the pre-portal philosophy of wanting guys for all 4 years, or a 2 & 3-year eligible transfer, instead of 1-year rental-grads.

So if we are reading the tea leaves..we have two centers who are mobile and maybe not even centers but mobile forwards and maybe we can consider Adelekum the same... This is a roster meant to run and apply defensive pressure....could see a line up where there are frequent substituions. Looks like FASTBREAK ON THE LAKE is back.....the other option with so many transfers with limited eligibility is that Drew was not ready to go with a young lineup.
But I think we, fans in the stands might have to limber up our neck muscles before the game...

Well the other side of the coin is if you want your underclassmen to stick around, it's probably less discouraging for them to see a transfer come in at their position if they are a one-and-done. So, Miles Rubin for example has a clear path to starting despite Dame coming in for this year.

Do the Ivy league players have an extra year for Covid? Is it possible they could be around for another year?

No. If they did, then we would have had Knight and Schweiger for two seasons instead of one.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

I think it’s important to remember here too, often the guys with 2-3 years eligibility are in the portal for a reason. Whether they got recruited at the wrong level, underperformed, had a coaching change, etc, they’re looking for a new place. Sometimes they end up a home run (Custer, Braden, Uguak) but sometimes they fizzle (Damezi Anderson, Jalon Pipkins). Those grad transfers likely have a lot more tape available than the guy who road the bench for 2 years at a P5 school.

Additionally, the Portal (and rosters overall) are still overstuffed with 5th year COVID players which is making transferring (especially grad transfers) more prevalent. Add in the one time transfer change and NIL and the amount of change to how you build rosters has been unprecedented in the last few years. Hopefully after this year things will regulate a bit (with both transfer and NIL) and get back into a more normal cadence. Will never be the same, but not fair to compare to the past when it’s a different ball game.

I think I saw somewhere (maybe here) that half of the players who go into the portal never play college basketball again.

The good news is that Drew did not fail in the portal. On paper, the roster has improved from last year, and that’s actually a big deal, considering the amount of mid major teams you look at that got decimated by the portal.

Depending on how Drew chooses to play it, he’s solidified the starting lineup, 1 through 4, with A-10 caliber players. That’s more than you can say for last year, where really Braden at the point and Phil were the only true A-10 quality producers at their position. We’ve went from worst to at-least the middle-of-the pack for next year. Huge improvement. However it carves out, we’ve got enough players for 40 quality minutes of 1 through 4 now (in whatever way Drew chooses to mix and match them).

The only weakness on this roster is the 5 spot. It’s clear now that Drew’s initial plan going into next season is to play the 5 by committee.

Current Depth chart:
- Rubin
- Adelekun
- Welch

If Rubin can produce more than (22’) Golden, Adelekun can produce more than (22’) Welch, and Welch can produce more than (22’) Hutson, we’ve, technically, improved the 5 position as well.

…Given Golden’s play last year, it doesn’t seem that far fetched…

If Ruben develops as the season goes on the way Krutwig did as a freshman in the 2017-18 season, we could end up being very dangerous.